Unsung Heroes

As I approached the opening plenary session, I was a little concerned about what I would be experiencing and how much of it would benefit me. I realized that this was my first time attending a conference on this level and I wanted to take full advantage of my opportunity here. The opening session was uplifting and I was sparked to go to an institute session(A Call to Action in the African American Community), that made me feel like it was worth me being here and taking in all of the knowledge I could in order to increase my ability to do my job.
I was amazed to see so many people at the opening plenary session who had the same passion as we do at the Taskforce. As the opening ceremony started and people continued to pour into the hall it became clear to me that this was something serious and there was commitment, compassion, dedication, love, history, and s/heroes in this room. I can't explain the feeling I had and the sense of urgency that this session placed before me.
After the opening of the conference I chose to go to the above institute for the duration of the day. While attending this session there were a lot of questions that I and others wanted answered, some of them were answered and some were not but all in all it gave me even more enthusiasm to work even harder for youth and women in my community because the increase of HIV/AIDS in the African American community continues to grow out of control. There were several issues placed in front of us for discussion after information was offered on funding sources for possible future prevention programs. Again I was moved by the enthusiasm of all of the people in the room and their desire to work toward stopping the continued increase of the virus in the African American community.
The rest of my time here at the conference I focused on the work that I am already doing with PLWH and PLWA, attending sessions and workshops on or about educating PLWA to become educators in the field. The United States Conference on AIDS caused me to brainstorm for new ideas, gave me a new found love for the work that I do, an increase of respect for the people that work beside me and people who live everyday infected but fighting and also a tan that I did not need! Overall it was a very uplifting experience and I would not trade the experience I gathered from this for anything else. See You All Soon!